Disclaimer: Do not sue. I do not own. And I'm late with updating because... uh... I'm lazy?

A/N: Yupp, poor Caboose.

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"Running time has just started?" Caboose inquired excitedly.

Yet as he took in the postures and expressions of Griff, Church, and Tucker, Caboose felt his normally thick-headedness clearing enough to tell him that something was definately NOT right.

Turning to Tex, from whom he seemed to be getting a better vibe from, the blue Spartan said slowly, "Uh... WHO are we... running from EXACTLY."

More perceptive and... okay, well, basically not dumb, Tex knew something had happened to everyone in Blood Gulch since the day started. Even SHE had felt something different whenever she looked at her dumb, blue teammate. But whatever it was that changed inside her, it had occured ten times worse in the rest of the Spartans she had seen so far.

Spotting Griff taking a step forward, Tex raised her sniper as she barked, "Hold it there, buddy."

Freezing at gunpoint, the golden Spartan raised his hands, "Woah, I wasn't gonna do anything."

"Uh-huh" Tex replied, her tone one of utter disbelief.

"Good thinking, Tex." Church commended as he started to walk forward, "You hold him off while-"

"Woah, nuh-uh you ass. Where do you think your going?" Tex demanded, drawing the gun towards the bluish-white team leader.

Freezing, Church directed his pointed gaze towards his ex, his voice deep with concern as he inquired, "Tex... what are you doing?"

"She's gone crazy!" Tucker yelled, totally flipping out as he dived behind a boulder.

"Ooh! Is this a new game?" Caboose asked with awe and excitement.

"Yes, Caboose." Tex replied without taking her eyes off the three other Spartans, excluding the Red she had pinned under her foot, "This is a new game. It's called Keep Away."

She glanced in his direction to see if he was paying attention. But if he had been a dog, he would've been full out wagging his tail, all his attention on her. She should've known he would pay attention if he thought it was something fun.

"Keep Away?" Caboose echoed, grinning from ear to ear as he asked, "How do you play?"

"It's simple. You stay away from everyone and don't let them catch you."

"Simple. Stay away from everyone. No catching. Okaaay..." Caboose repeated, nodding his head slowly.

"The game is over when I say so and I tell you if you win or not. Starting NOW. RUN!"

"Okay!" Caboose exclaimed as he darted off, repeating to himself, "Stay away from everyone. No catching. Game over when Tex says and I win when she says!"

The last thing the four conscious and one unconscious Spartan heard from the Caboose was his voice stating, "This is gonna be fun!"

"I can't believe you just DID that." A disheartened and irritated Church said grumpily.

Tex shrugged, about to open her mouth to say something else when she realized there was no one to talk to. Well, besides the unconscious Red underneath her boot. But besides Simmons, the others had already left. Shrugging once more, Tex slung her rifle over her shoulder and headed back to the base, wondering how long Caboose would last.

She actually had developed this increasing liking toward the blue moron, and it just kept getting stronger as the day progressed.

Not that it could mean anything, or anything like that.

-o-o-o-o-

Caboose had no idea where he was headed, but he figured he had been running for quite some time when he heard some maniacal laughter from up ahead. Curious, but not forgetting about the Keep Away game, the Blue shimmied up the nearest tree and waited.

As a purple figure strolled into view, Caboose couldn't help laughing silently, barely smothering the chuckle with his fist.

Doc stopped slowly, squinting his eyes and blinking a few times to get if he was seeing right.

"Lopez! Am I hallucinating or... is there really a half-naked Blue hiding up in that tree."

(A/N: I'm warning you ahead of time that any grammatical error on the spanish-speaking end is entirely my fault and I have no trouble admitting that my languistic skills are rusty.)

"No comprendo." The monotone spanish audio dribbled from the talking head.

"I don't know if you get this yet, but I don't have a damn clue what you're saying." Doc added.

"..." The spanish-speaking cyborg just stared at the evil doctor a few more moments before stating blunting, "Estas muy estupido."

"Whatever," Doc tuned the cyborg out as he turned his attention back to the Blue 'HIDING' in the tree, "Hey. HEY! You up there."

Snickering, Caboose replied, "I do not know what you are talking about... there is no one up here."

"What are you talki- I can SEE you plain as day up in that tree!" Doc stated, his tone impatient as he tapped his foot in irritation.

"No." Caboose said slowly, his tone convinced as he said, "Noooo, I do not think you can. The leaves and branches are hiding me."

"That's just it, you MORON. There ARE no leaves on that tree to HIDE you with!" Doc exclaimed. In an instant he reverted back to his nicer personality and apologized, "I am SO sorry. I don't know what's come over me. I don't think you're a moron."

Then the evil one was back again, "OF COURSE I do. Shut up!"

Caboose scratched his head in confusion before replying with a stretched out, "Ooookaaaayyyyyy."

Deciding for himself that the evil scientist must really see him, Caboose jumped down from the tree, pausing a few feet from the Doc himself. As if they had just seen eachother, Caboose greeted with a chirpy, "Hello!"

"Oh my GOD!" Doc groaned before smacking himself in the visor at the Blue's sheer stupidity.

"... Esta muy estupido, tambien..." Lopez commented from his position on the ground.

Before Doc could loose himself in a rant, he glanced up only to finally notice that along with the Blue's missing armor, Caboose didn't have his helmet.

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Huh, I almost forgot about Doc. Well, this is as much as I can squeeze out for this storyline today. Ciao.